Tag Archives: legitimate massage therapists

Nobody is perfect… On being hurt

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One question no one ever asks when looking for a medical massage therapist. “Have you ever been seriously hurt yourself?”. It’s a great question and should be asked often. Who better to help you recover than someone experienced in all the obstacles to getting better.

As a young man, I felt invincible, and that any activity could be accomplished without consequence, but that turned out not to be true. At one point, through work exhaustion combined with a basketball injury to my back, I got laid out, big time. Standing upright was not possible; my right thigh spasmed severely. Because of stabbing low back pains, sitting  down was not possible, not even to go to the bathroom. Laying down helpless the thigh spasms would come and stay, locking me up so mercilessly that my whole body would shake and break out in a cold sweat. The pain was so intense I felt that I could pass out. I prayed to pass out!

Well, I ended up in a nursing home wearing a diaper. I will spare you all the indignities suffered during my stay.

Eventually, I recovered, fully. Although my Physical Therapist told me that I would not be able to play basketball again, I struggled for a different outcome. That prognosis turned out not to be true. Now, I still play at age 53. 

So when you tell me your story, you can bet I can relate at least to what your going through,           maybe even help you get back to health!

 

Top performing companies and massage therapy

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Successful companies like Google don’t get that way by accident. Even in these difficult times, the company thrives. Why? They think outside of the box. They throw  most  conventional thinking out the window. They always ask how they can improve what they are doing.  Of course, unlike most companies, their employees are highly motivated and very creative. Fortune magazine ranked them as the number 1 company to work for. It was no surprise to hear that all their employees can receive massage as a job benefit, right at their  facilities.

 Google’s Massage therapists are treated with the kind of respect not often afforded in the “real” world, working no more than 12 hours a week. Contrast  that with Massage Envy’s sweatshop- like conditions and meager wages that take advantage of under-trained and undereducated recent “graduates”. I bring this up because Massage Envy does a lot of the “massage” business  but they don’t really provide  much steak, just the sizzle. So, it is not really massage you receive and, therefore, it is more a luxury then a real benefit to your health. Don’t take my word for it…….here is what others think! The Massage Envy ?  or this spa site.

 At Google, the therapists are well trained and represent what massage is really all about. Does the company you work for provide massage for employees?  No? Well maybe they ought to think about it, think outside the box!

Passion for Massage

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To really be good at something, anything really, requires a level of excitement, enthusiasm, in a word, passion. Without passion, your work, though acceptable, will never demonstrate excellence.  I had a crazy drive to become a Massage Therapist. Massage itself was not my passion,  it was the desire to help people heal:  massage became the vehicle to achieve that goal.

Of course,  18 year ago, when I began my career, the profession was much misunderstood,  many viewed massage as fluff, a luxury for the wealthy,  a palliative, or, at worst, a cover for prostitution. Today, the profession has advanced and made some inroads.  People are beginning to hear good things about the benefits of this old healing practice. At the same time, the popularity that many of us massage pioneers helped create is being lost in a flood of new under- trained, under- qualified recruits who through no fault of their own cannot meet the higher expectations of today’s informed client. The pressure to make big money has led to a decline in the quality of service provided. Substance and performance have given way to slick promos and empty promises.

Massage is more than what meets the eye. For Instance, each human body has it’s own unique topography. Each person has a quality of depth, composition, and complexity which is like  no other, and presents a different challenge.  Nowadays, the average massage therapist delivers a massage much the same way a house painter applies a coat of paint, uniformly, superficially, and repetitively, with no regard to the unique qualities of the individual. Witness the birth of “fast food” massage.

Rubbed the wrong way!

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Even legitimate Massage Therapists can be rubbed the wrong way. Understand, I have been a Massage Therapist for over 17 years. It still hurts to hear the one liners from people who ought to know better, or maybe not.  I look at Massage ads in the paper, or in a phone book, or under the category “Therapeutic Massage” on craigslist, and I feel sick. Of course, many of these “people” are not Massage Therapists but they fly in under that banner, and because of it, potential clients become leery about Massage. I understand, and believe you me, it gets under my skin. Sometimes I just want to give it up.  But no, perhaps these Massage impostors are going to end up ruining it for all the really good hard working Therapists that have done so much good for our communities. I don’t know, but I don’t want the art of Massage lost to the public, it is much to needed, to be squandered away.

On the other end of the spectrum are establishments like Massage Envy, who I believe under-compensate, their mostly new graduate fledgling Therapists, and hard sell the customers into Massage “packages”. These  overworked therapists break down fast, and the turnover is high. Customers are also pressured into tipping. I’m sure there not all like that, however I hear it quite a bit, and more.

This is the dark side of the Massage business

Physical Benefits of Massage

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The benefits include:

  • Massage relaxes muscle contractions, spasms, and relieves general body tensions.
  • Massage dilates the blood vessels, thus improving the circulation.
  • Massage acts as a “mechanical cleanser” pushing along  lymphatic fluids and hastening the elimination of wastes and toxic debris.
  • Massage increases the blood supply and nutrition to muscles without adding to their load of toxic lactic acid, produced through voluntary muscle contraction. Massage thus helps to overcome harmful “fatigue” products resulting from strenuous exercise or injury.
  • Massage improves muscle tone and helps prevent or delay muscular atrophy resulting from forced inactivity
  • Massage can compensate, in part, for lack of exercise and muscular contraction in persons who because of injury, illness or age are forced to remain inactive. In these cases, massage helps return venous blood to the heart and so eases the strain on this vital organ.
  • Massage may sedate or stimulate  the nervous system depending on the type of massage administered.
  • Massage can prevent or remove adhesion’s in body tissues.
  • Massage  improves the general circulation and nutrition of tissues. It is accompanied or followed by an increased interchange of substances between the blood and tissue cells increasing tissue metabolism.
  • Massage increases the excretion of  fluids and nitrogen, inorganic phosphorous and salt in normal healthy individuals.
  • Massage helps the body retain needed minerals like nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur, need for body repairs of tissues and bones. ( hip fractures).
  • Massage improves nutrition to the joints. This lessens inflammation and swelling in those joints, which in turn alleviates pain.
  • Massage reduces edema (swellings)  and in turn facilitates better movement.
  • Massage will improve flexibility in body and body limbs.
  • Massage instills a sense of well being.
  • Massage benefits are not limited to this list.